Thyroid nodules: a review of current guidelines, practices, and prospects

In 2006, two major society-sponsored guidelines and one major consensus statement for thyroid diagnosis and management were published by: the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists/Associazione Medici Endocrinologi (AACE/AME); the American Thyroid Association (ATA); and the European Thyroid Association (ETA). A careful review of these guidelines reveals that despite many similarities, significant differences are also present, likely reflecting differences in practice patterns, interpretation of existing data, and availability of resources in different regions. The methodology of the guidelines is similar, but a few differences in the rating scale make a rapid comparison of the strength of both evidence and recommendations difficult for the use in current clinical practice. Some recommendations are based mostly on experts' opinion. Thus, a same recommendation may be based on a different evidence; on the other hand, sometimes the same evidence may induce a different recommendation. Therefore, efforts are needed to produce a few high-quality clinical studies to close the evidence gaps in the still controversial fields of thyroid disease and to create a joint task force of the most authoritative societies in the field of thyroid disease in order to reach a common document for clinical practice recommendations.